Commission blames management for Ikeja mall fire

Lagos State Safety Commission has blamed the management of Ikeja City Mall, popularly known as Shoprite, for the fire outbreak that affected Mr. Price section of the mall last Tuesday.

The incident, which took place at the clothing store, left many shoppers and workers in disarray for the few hours it lasted.

Barely 48 hours after the blaze, the commission officials led by its Director General, Mrs. Dominga Odebunmi, paid an unscheduled visit to the mall.

On hand to receive her and the team was the Ikeja City Mall’s Operations Manager, Mr. Steve Idornigie.

The LSC’s team went round the affected section to ascertain the cause of the blaze and to check the safety measures put in place by the mall’s management.

The director general said, “During the watching of the CCTV, we observed the movement of the public, the control mechanism that the shop owners, the shopkeepers and shop management put in place.

“Usually, a camera will tell us the actual incident. We have requested a copy of specific time of specific location so that we can use that for further assessment and put that in our recommendations.

“However, we were able to pick quite a few safety inadequacies within the observation of the camera such as a fire incident happening, there was no smoke alarm; though there was fire alarm.

“Also, shoppers were strolling in and out of the mall when the fire was burning. It showed there was no adequate alert and the information management system was not good enough. That is not acceptable. There should have been an instant shutdown of the inward flow of customers.

Odebunmi said the management of the mall had been summoned to the commission’s office on Monday (today).

She said it was curious that the back-up extinguishers of the affected section were hidden, insisting that it was bad safety management culture.

Odebunmi said from the handling of the fire incident at Mr. Price, the security personnel displayed high level of docility and incompetence.

Therefore, she recommended that the security personnel at the mall needed “serious” training.

Idornigie told the DG that the mall management was reviewing the situation and that they would get back to the situation.

He said they would honour the summon by commission to enable them to show that they were highly committed to safety management.

He said they were willing to learn more about how to improve the safety requirements of the mall.

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